• ‘The Rock Was Christ’: The Fluidity of Christ’s Body in 1 Cor. 10.4

    Author(s):
    Matthew Thiessen (see profile)
    Date:
    2013
    Group(s):
    Ancient Jew Review, Biblical Studies, Religious Studies
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Christology, divine embodiment, pneuma, Biblical studies, Religious studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6C96X
    Abstract:
    Paul’s identification of Christ with the rock that provided water to Israel in the wilderness has confounded interpreters. This article seeks to demonstrate that Paul depends upon a tradition within early Jewish thinking, as evidenced in poetic works such as Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 78, and Psalm 95, which linked Israel’s God to this rock. Despite growing unease with using rock imagery to describe God, as seen in Jeremiah’s recasting of this tradition, as well as the consistent efforts of the LXX translators of the Hebrew Bible to render such language in less chthonic terms, Paul identified the rock with the presence of Christ in the wilderness, and therefore demonstrates his indebtedness to a conception of divine fluidity which Benjamin Sommer has explored in his recent book The Bodies of God.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. Date:
    2013
    Journal:
    Journal for the Study of the New Testament
    Volume:
    36
    Page Range:
    103 - 126
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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